Jordan Hoiem's retirement from football, in his words

July 30, 2013 - Robert Collias

Our internet at The Maui News office is not functioning right, so for those of you out there with internet capability, here is the story I just emailed, in its entirety (if our problems continue, a shorter version is likely to be in Tuesday's paper):

WAILUKU — Jordan Hoiem, a senior linebacker for Baldwin High School and verbal commit to the University of Oregon, told coaches from both teams Monday that he has retired from football.

Hoiem said in a phone interview that he came to the decision “about two weeks ago because it was crunch time, the season was about to come up, so I figured I have got to really decide here.”

Hoiem said he doesn’t have a passion for the game and is not related to the death of Noe Ortiz, who died in October 2012 after living with the Hoiem family since Jordan was in the 5th grade.

“Nobody really knew because I didn’t tell anybody, but my whole entire junior season I was really unhappy,” Hoiem said. “I just didn’t enjoy the sport of football. I played because I was getting recruited and that was my ticket to go get an education, so I forced myself to do it but I was really unhappy and it made me really unhappy in life, too.”

Hoiem, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound three-star recruit for Scout.com, had scholarship offers from Hawaii, Nevada-Las Vegas, Utah and Utah State before becoming the first verbal commitment for new Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich in March.

“I thought it was just a phase and once I commit it will all be over,” Hoiem said. “After the season was over I got out of whatever, all the unhappiness, and I was able to be happy training and feeling good. Then 3½, four months ago as the season started to come up again it was the same exact thing. I started to get really unhappy and that was right around the time when coaches were saying, ‘Hey, you have got to come out and play.’ It feels like I choked — I just was really unhappy in day-to-day life.

“It kind of gave me a sign, like, ‘Hey, this isn’t what you should really be doing. It’s not giving you any joy anymore.’ ”

Hoiem, who calls baseball his first love, said he did enjoy the sport of football in his standout sophomore season when he arrived on college coaches’ radar screens.

“That’s when I started getting all of my attention,” Hoiem said. “Before that I didn’t really enjoy football all that much. I was in the right place at the right time. I got all this attention, but I really don’t believe that football is my path in life.”

Despite media reports to the contrary, Hoiem said that the loss of Ortiz did not factor into his decision.

“I don’t think that has anything to do with it,” he said. “People might say that, but I’m not going to use that as an excuse, like, ‘Oh, this is why I’m not playing. You guys should feel bad for me because this happened.’ It has nothing to do with that. . . . I considered him a part of the family, my brother, but definitely I don’t think it played a part in me making this decision.”

He said he will tryout for the Baldwin baseball team, the first time he has played that sport since 8th grade — he turned to football in 7th grade because his friends were playing the sport.

“Baseball was always my passion and that is what I thought I was going to be doing,” he said. “I just love the game. Baseball was everything to me, I collected cards, I was a baseball fanatic.”

In his first football game, Hoiem broke his wrist and tore his rotator cuff, stalling his baseball career at that point.

Football engulfed him in his sophomore season.

“Sophomore year, I enjoyed it, I admit,” he said. “I was just living life and was in the spotlight, I did well and people noticed me. I think my true colors showed after that in football — it just wasn’t something I was that passionate about to play at the high level of college.”

Hoiem said that he is done with football, despite telling other reporters that he was leaving the door slightly open.

“I kind of said ‘I don’t know’ in the other articles but honestly I know in my heart that football is not my sport,” Hoiem said. “But just the opportunity that it gave me, it has put a lot of confusion, like, ‘Why can’t I play so I can go to college.’ And I keep trying to force it, maybe one day I will get it back and I can still do great things in football.

“In my heart, I’m not really a football player-type of person. … Football just isn’t me.”

Hoiem said informing Oregon defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti of his decision was hard, but the Oregon football community was supportive.

“It is better off for me to tell them now so they can a better recruit,” Hoiem said. “They have time to figure stuff out. I would hate to play and then at the last minute leave them out of a recruit. I talked to Aliotti, he was really really cool about it, their whole staff. They were just concerned about me as a person, they were worried about me as a person, they were worried about my life, which was awesome.

“I feel bad, but they are not making as bad as I thought it would be. They were really supportive, so that’s great.”

Article Comments

rcollias

Aug-01-13 2:56 AM

Aloha localgurlz, sorry I did not see your comment until now. I could not agree more, it does take a brave and honest young man to do this, and if Jordan Hoiem is anything, he is all of that and a whole lot more. I, too, wish him the best for the future. Watch out in baseball, he is an uber-talented athlete. My conversation with him for this story was heartwarming. RC